Qantas has insulted the Sunraysia population and should no longer be allowed to call itself the ‘Spirit of Australia’, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster MP said after Qantas confirmed their worst-kept secret on closing its Mildura, Hobart and Canberra bases.
“Qantas can try to spin this however they like, they engineered the very outcome they have announced with crocodile tears today,” Dr Webster said.
“Let it be known on 1 October 2025 Qantas ceased to be the ‘Spirit of Australia’ and became the ‘Spirit of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane’.”
Dr Webster spoke with Qantaslink CEO Rachel Yangoyan yesterday afternoon and communicated her displeasure and that of local Qantas staff and the Mildura community.
While Mildura has been serviced by commercial airlines since the mid-1970s via what began as Murray Valley Airlines, then Sunstate and Southern Australia Airlines, the operation’s later owner Australian Airlines merged with Qantas in September 1992.
